


I'll Come for You, If You Just Stay Where You Are

by lookingforthestars



Category: Runaways (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-30
Updated: 2020-01-30
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:53:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22483672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lookingforthestars/pseuds/lookingforthestars
Summary: Gert's high school graduation trip is off to a rough start (thanks to Molly and Karolina) - until she meets a scary goth girl, a socially awkward nerd, and the most gorgeous guy she's ever seen.
Relationships: Chase Stein/Gertrude Yorkes
Comments: 8
Kudos: 79





	I'll Come for You, If You Just Stay Where You Are

**Author's Note:**

> I just really loved writing the story and it took a lot of work, so I really hope everyone enjoys reading it. :)

Gert _really_ should have known better when Karolina said this would be fun.

Karo and Molly are gratingly optimistic on an average day, and today is the kind of below-average day where Gert is actively considering killing them both. They are honors students in the school of _everything will work out, don’t worry about it_ , which is how they missed their original flight by twenty minutes, got stuck behind a screaming child for fourteen hours on their replacement flight, and lost a third of their cash after Karolina left her bag in a taxi.

So now Gert is exhausted, and incredibly hungry, and the hotel room they originally booked is out of the question, at least until the morning when their parents can wire them more money. They’re on a bench somewhere in Athens, and the sun is fading quickly, which would be beautiful if Gert wasn’t so _mad_ , and Molly is already fast asleep on her shoulder, because her little sister could sleep while tumbling from a skyscraper.

“Isn’t the sunset amazing?” Karolina chirps, gazing at the sky wistfully. The orange light makes her even more radiant, makes her glow, and Gert would hate Karolina for being so beautiful if she wasn’t also so kindhearted.

“Karolina, focus,” Gert snaps, nodding in the direction of her phone. “I’m not sleeping on the street tonight. I know that’s like, a fun adventure to you and Molly, but I’d rather survive this cursed trip.”

She gives Gert a look that’s equal parts disapproving and amused. “There’s a hostel on the next street over. It’s super cheap, and we can stay there tonight while we figure everything out. Okay?”

“Oh, great, sleeping with a bunch of strangers who almost definitely want to steal our stuff. Solid plan, Karo,” Gert grumbles. She’ll probably grumble all night, but it’s not like they have any other choice, so she nudges Molly awake and gathers her bags, remembering why she usually ignored people who told her to _live a little_. There was nothing wrong with a routine. A routine ensured she was never in danger of being eaten by wild dogs or stabbed over her iPhone or any of the other terrifying scenarios she was currently imagining.

Her anger at Karolina lessens slightly when they arrive at the hostel fifteen minutes later. It’s not fancy, but it’s not actively crumbling, and she doubts she’ll get much rest but at least Molly, who very nearly falls asleep again standing up while they check in and pay, will.

“See? This place is great!” That’s an overstatement, but Gert feels a ghost of a smile coming on at Karolina’s boundless enthusiasm. They drop their bags on the beds, and Molly starts snoring the second her head hits the pillow. There’s a goth girl in a chair in the corner, one foot up on the cushion as she flips aimlessly through a magazine, and her eyebrow raises as she sizes them up. “Hi! I’m Karolina,” the blonde says, reaching out to shake the goth girl’s hand. She clearly doesn’t find this stranger as intimidating as Gert does. “These are my friends Gert and Molly. Who are you?”

The girl, all black eyeliner and fishnet tights, looks a little confused by the greeting. “Uh…I’m Nico. This is Alex,” she nods to a boy with glasses behind her, tapping away on a Nintendo DS. “And we’re waiting for our friend Chase. He takes a really long time on his hair.”

Gert snorts a little, already imagining this high-maintenance pretty boy in her head. “How long have you guys been staying here?”

“We got in yesterday. We’re here for two weeks. Last hurrah before college kind of thing. You?”

“Same,” Gert said. “Where are you from?”

“California. Brentwood. It sucks.”

Gert can’t help but laugh. She thinks she might like Nico. “We’re from Massachusetts. Right outside Boston.”

“Cool.” They chat for a few more minutes, about graduating high school and their college plans and what they want to do while they’re in Greece, and Gert completely forgets about the third member of their party until the bathroom door opens and he walks out.

 _He_ being maybe the hottest person she’s ever seen in real life, wearing a black t-shirt that’s just tight enough to be distracting. His dark eyes fall on her almost immediately, and Gert is vaguely aware that she’s staring like a complete moron, but she doesn’t stop. She actually, physically can’t.

“Finally,” Nico says with a dramatic sigh, throwing her magazine in his direction. “I’m starving. If we don’t go to dinner now, I’m dipping into your emergency protein powder stash.”

He tears his eyes away from Gert – okay, that’s an exaggeration, he wasn’t looking _that_ hard, right? He was probably looking at Karolina, honestly, everyone does – to frown at Nico. “Don’t you dare.”

“Buy me a gyro and your protein powder is safe, I swear.” Nico rolls her eyes, gesturing to Gert and Karolina and Molly’s unconscious form. “Chase, meet our new friends. You guys want to come to dinner?”

Right. Food. For a second, Gert had completely forgotten she was hungry. Weird. “I want to, but I don’t think my sister has any intention of waking up, and I don’t know if I should leave her here alone.”

“She’ll be fine. It’s safe here,” Chase says, his eyes on her again and she has a little trouble breathing. Which is incredibly stupid, because he’s talking to her, _of course_ he’s looking in her direction, he’s not a lunatic. Probably. “The restaurant is five minutes away, so you’ll be close if she needs you.”

 _Safe_ isn’t an emotion that her anxiety typically allows her to feel. And she definitely has no reason to trust someone she met all of three minutes ago, especially one so attractive that Gert is a hundred percent sure she isn’t thinking straight.

And yet, for some reason…she believes him. “Sure. Okay.”

* * *

It’s the most delicious meal Gert has had in forever, and she doesn’t know if it’s the fact that she hadn’t eaten in eight hours, or the excitement of traveling, or the surprisingly great company.

They are five wildly different people, but they’re sort of clicking, and Gert knows Karolina will find a way to spin this as fate or something. It’s just a coincidence, obviously, but a nice one, and she’s starting to think this trip won’t be so awful after all.

Oh, fuck. She doesn’t realize she’s staring at Chase until he meets her eyes and gives her a small smile, and she turns away so fast the booth shakes. Karolina gives her a weird sideways glance, but Gert signals _it’s nothing_ with her eyes and Karo drops it.

He’s not even her type. Like, Chase might secretly be a Greek god given mortality, but there’s no way they have anything in common. There’s also no way he would be attracted to someone like her. Guys like him always date blonde supermodels like Karo, or hot exotic girls like Nico, and since both of those girls are currently at their table, Gert might as well be invisible.

Plus, he lives in California. And they’re on a trip. Not that a vacation hook-up is out of the question, necessarily, but it’s not going to happen in a bed ten feet away from her little sister.

Gert decides she’s _super_ over this train of thought and tunes back into a conversation about Alex’s ethical hacking class. And when she feels Chase looking at her again, she ignores it as hard as humanly possible.

* * *

This is why Gert doesn’t like traveling. _At all_.

She sleeps pretty soundly until four in the morning, when her anxiety starts crafting all these worst-case scenarios in her semiconscious brain, and then shouts that everything will go to hell if she doesn’t wake up _right now_. It ratchets up to eleven when she doesn’t recognize her surroundings, and by the time it all comes back to her, she’s three-quarters of the way to a full-blown panic attack.

“Hey, are you okay?” Gert really hopes that’s not who she thinks it is, but it’s all for nothing when she sees a figure in the dark that can only be Chase. He climbs onto the edge of her small bed, moving slowly like he’s approaching a wild animal. “Gert?”

“I’m fine,” she half-growls at him, her voice way too rough to be convincing. Gert wipes away the tears with the sleeves of her shirt, grateful that he can’t see how horrendous she probably looks in the dim light. “Leave me alone.”

He looks surprised and a little hurt, and Gert thinks his face must be incredibly expressive if she can tell. “I will if you want me to. Or I can help. Do you want some water?”

Crying does make her thirsty, and that wins out over her embarrassment, so she nods. Chase disappears into the kitchenette, taking a little longer than necessary so Gert can pull herself together, and she appreciates it.

“Here,” he says quietly, handing her the glass. She expects him to leave immediately, but he just sits on her mattress silently until she’s done chugging the water. “Do you need more? Or anything else?”

Gert’s not sure why he’s doing this, and she doesn’t know what to say. Her parents and Molly are the only people who help her through panic attacks, and they’re family, they don’t really have a choice. “I don’t need you to pity me, you know,” she says with a significant amount of venom.

That tone usually scares people off, but it only slightly fazes Chase, who tilts his head and frowns. “Why would I pity you?”

“Because. You probably thought I was normal up until now, right? Well, my secret is out. I’m crazy,” she says, adding a dramatic flourish to the last word. Deep down she knows this probably comes off as crazier than the panic attack itself, but she can’t stop babbling in this early-hours haze of exhaustion and jet lag and humiliation.

“I don’t think you’re crazy. And you don’t have to explain yourself to me. I’m just trying to help.”

His voice is upsettingly earnest, and Gert thinks she might believe him if her anxiety wasn’t screaming that she’s a mess and everyone around her is annoyed by her completely unprovoked meltdown. Karolina is sleeping peacefully next to her, looking like an ad for some kind of miracle night cream, and Gert is jealous. Life would be so much easier if she could be like that. If she wasn’t so…whatever she is.

“Anyway.” Gert swallows, looking down at her fingers as they toy with the hem of her sweatpants. “Thanks. You can go back to bed. I’ll be okay.”

“You sure?” She nods, and he seems to hesitate for a second before he answers, “Okay. Good night, Gert.”

“Good night.” Gert doesn’t look at him, but she hears him climb into bed as she lays down. She never falls back asleep, and based on his breathing, she’s not sure Chase does either.

* * *

“This is so cool,” Karolina gushes, posing in front of a row of female statues as Nico snaps pictures of her. “Don’t you love it?”

Alex shrugs. “It’s just a bunch of rocks. Now, an AR simulation of what this _used_ to look like would be cool. I’m going to see if I can find something…”

They lose Alex to his tablet once again, and Chase rolls his eyes. He and Alex don’t seem particularly close, but it might be because they’re too similar. Gert wonders how they became friends.

Gert wonders a lot of things about Chase, actually, but she doesn’t ask them. Because asking would mean getting to know him, and that’s a slippery slope. She doesn’t need to get attached to someone who’s going to be out of her life permanently in a couple of weeks.

The Acropolis is cool, but what she really enjoys is the panoramic view of Athens from this height. She can even see the hostel, where they decided to stay for the rest of their trip when it became clear that their new friends probably weren’t out to rob them. The late afternoon light is reflecting off the mountains and it’s absolutely breathtaking.

“It’s amazing. Better than I imagined,” Chase says from where he’s suddenly materialized next to her. He turns to look at her with a soft grin, and Gert’s breath hitches. The light makes his entire face glow and he’s pretty breathtaking, too.

Gert realizes she’s taking way too long to respond and mumbles, “Um…yeah. I’m really glad we came here. I mean, I don’t really like traveling as a general rule, but Molly wouldn’t let up until I agreed, so…”

Chase chuckles, switching his attention back to the city. “Yeah, Nico kind of bullied us into this trip. One last blowout before we all go to different schools. She seems scary, but she’s really sentimental.”

“I heard that, and I hate you!” Nico yells from a few feet away. Gert and Chase crack up simultaneously when she gives them the finger.

“Obviously,” Gert says with a smile. “Well, for what it’s worth, I’m glad we all ran into each other.”

“Yeah. Me too.” His voice is soft, as soft as the fading light, and they watch the rest of the sunset in silence. Gert is pretty sure the memory will be etched in her mind forever.

* * *

Chase should be annoyed by this.

He thinks he would be, if it was anyone else. Because he’s not really comfortable in this position. He hasn’t been comfortable for the last half hour.

It’s almost midnight when they take the subway back to the hostel, after Nico and Karolina coerced their respective friends into going to a restaurant by the water for dinner. It was well worth the distance for the incredible seafood, and they’d walked around the cobblestone streets for hours, laughing hard at nothing. Chase can’t remember the last time he felt so unburdened.

Gert hasn’t been sleeping much, he can hear her moving around at night, so it’s not much of a surprise when she falls asleep. The surprising part is that she falls asleep on his shoulder, her body curled toward him as much as the narrow seats allow, and every single member of their group has shot him a knowing look since it started.

It’s awkward, but he doesn’t want to shift and risk waking her up. She needs to rest, or at least that’s what he tells himself for the first ten miles or so.

That’s when they hit a corner and the subway car jostles, and Chase instinctively puts his other arm around her to steady her, holding his breath until he knows she’s still out.

It’s not concern he feels, it’s relief. Because despite the fact that his right arm is asleep and there’s a knot forming in his back, he really doesn’t want Gert to move.

Huh. That…might be a problem.

* * *

Chase looks like a kid in a candy store.

“This place is right up his alley,” Nico says with an amused smirk as she watches him pore over the exhibits with undivided attention. “Good idea.”

All Gert did was read it off a list of things to do in Athens and Chase lit up like a Christmas tree, so they made their next stop the Kotsanas Museum of Ancient Greek Technology. It’s quite literally the last place Gert expected Chase to be excited about, but she’s only known him for four days, so maybe she’s not an expert. “Why is he so into this stuff?”

The exhibit is something about high-tech inventions, and while it all looks interesting, Chase is clearly deep in his element. “I know he looks like an idiot – and acts like an idiot – but Chase is actually kind of an inventor himself,” Nico explains. “His parents are both like, crazy geniuses. You’ve probably heard of his dad. Victor Stein?”

Gert’s jaw drops. “Chase’s dad is _Victor Stein_?”

“The one and only.” There’s something in Nico’s flat tone that suggests she doesn’t think highly of him. “But yeah, Chase really geeks out about stuff like this. It’s funny.”

Damnit. He’s smart, too?

Nico turns the smirk on her and Gert realizes a second too late she said it out loud. “Karolina was right. You’re totally into him.”

“Uh, what? No. I’m not into him,” Gert stammers, well aware that Nico isn’t buying it at all. She pushes her glasses up nervously with her index finger. “Besides, aren’t you guys like…?”

Nico absolutely loses it, her hands clutching her sides as she doubles over with laughter. Everyone is looking in their direction and Gert shifts uncomfortably, trying her hardest not to make any eye contact with Chase, who is definitely staring at them from six display cases away.

“Okay! Okay. I get the point,” Gert stage-whispers, letting out a relieved breath when Nico calms down and straightens back up. “But there’s no way he doesn’t have a girlfriend.”

“He was dating this chick Eiffel, but she was the actual worst. Them breaking up was a blessing for all of us.” Nico dabs at her wet eyes, carefully avoiding her heavy eyeshadow. “Look, no judgment, okay? Chase is obviously super hot and he’s a nice guy, honestly. Just not my type. For what it’s worth, he’s been hanging around you a lot and that’s not really like him.”

Gert starts to ask what that means, then decides she doesn’t need to know and snaps her mouth shut. She and Chase are friends, and that’s fine. It’s great, actually.

Anything more than that is a complication she doesn’t need.

* * *

They spend the next two days mostly separate because they can’t all agree on where to go, and Gert is embarrassed to admit that she hates it. Even though they still meet for dinner both nights, she spends a frustrating amount of time thinking about Chase, replaying their moment at the Acropolis in her head and thinking of cute jokes she would tell him if he was there.

She knows it’s just hormones, because _good god_ is Chase beautiful and she’s been single for a while, and it’s perfectly normal for attraction to make anyone’s head a little wonky. Gert still hates it, though, because she wants to be above all that, wants to not waste her entire trip obsessing over a guy who will forget about her the second he boards his plane.

So, when everyone else is deep into a drunken (save for Molly) game of Pictionary, Gert sneaks up to the second floor and climbs out the window. She’s not sure she’s supposed to be out here, but there’s a large flat ledge that’s practically made for stargazing like she used to when she was younger. Pondering the vastness of the universe made her problems seem a little smaller.

Her problems _are_ small. Compared to starvation and poverty and disease and injustice, Gert’s life is absolutely charmed, which just makes her feel worse about her self-pity.

“Oh. There you are.” Her wallowing is interrupted by Chase, and she’s torn between being annoyed that she can’t get a moment of peace and thrilled to hear his voice. “Molly was worried when you didn’t come back. She sent me to find you.”

Of course she did, that meddling little… “Sorry. I just needed some fresh air.”

“Can I join you?”

 _Yes, always, forever._ “If you want,” Gert says nonchalantly, not sure if she nails it or not.

Chase eases next to her, testing to make sure the ledge will support his weight. There’s more than enough space for both of them, and when Chase lays down close enough that their arms are touching, Gert reminds herself that he probably just doesn’t want to fall over the edge. “I haven’t done this in forever. Watching the stars, I mean.” Out of the corner of her eye, she sees him smile wistfully, and her chest aches. “My dad had this telescope and I used to take it out onto our roof when he was on work trips. For a while, I thought I might want to be an astronomer, but then I got into engineering instead.”

Gert hums in acknowledgment, not trusting herself to say anything that won’t come out as _hey,_ _do you want to get married?_

“Molly told me you and Karolina are going to Smith in the fall.” Chase rolls onto his side, and it occurs to Gert that this probably isn’t safe if he’s been drinking, but his eyes are clear, like he hasn’t had that much. “Are you excited?”

“Yeah. They’ve got this amazing cultural studies program. And it’s a women’s college, so…it’s just kind of my dream school. I can’t believe I got in, honestly.”

“I can,” Chase says quietly, and Gert focuses very intensely on Orion’s Belt to avoid processing how he’s looking at her right now. “MIT was my dream school. I got in, actually. But it didn’t work out, so…I’m going to Caltech. Still a good school.”

“Why didn’t it work out?” She’s pretty sure the answer isn’t money, with a father like Victor Stein and the wad of cash she saw in his wallet the other day.

“My dad, he just…wanted me to be closer. So I could come back on weekends and stuff. He was pretty insistent and he’s paying the tuition, so…” Chase shrugs, and he’s obviously pretending it doesn’t matter. But it does.

Gert turns sideways to face him, propping herself up on her elbow. “Okay, but what about what you want?”

Chase’s eyes widen a little, then narrow. “Trust me, that’s never really mattered to anyone, especially my dad.”

“So go tell him to screw himself, Chase. You can’t let someone else dictate your whole life.”

He stares at her for a long second, surprised, and then pushes himself up to a sitting position. “It’s not that simple, Gert. No one stands up to Victor Stein and wins, alright? I learned that a long time ago.”

“Please, like you’ve ever had to stand up to anyone.” Gert sits up too, pulling her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. “What’s your idea of oppression? Too much ice in your Jamba Juice?”

Wow. Deep down, she knows how harsh the words are as they come out, but she doesn’t take them back. Because this is what she does when she feels something she doesn’t want to feel. She bites.

“You know, Gert, I’m really happy for you. I’m happy that you have parents that let you do whatever you want and don’t put all this fucking pressure on you to be perfect. That sounds pretty great.” He shakes his head, digging his teeth hard into his bottom lip. “I honestly thought you were the one person who didn’t see me as some entitled, elitist idiot. But that’s how exactly how you see me, isn’t it?”

“I see a privileged white man who has to make up something to rage about because you don’t have any real problems-.”

“Oh, real problems like yours? All the stuff you make up in your head that’s literally not even happening?” Gert’s mouth and heart both drop to the ground, and it’s suddenly so quiet they might as well be in the actual vacuum of space. “Shit. I didn’t mean that.”

This is good. This is good, Gert thinks, because now she can stop putting Chase on a fucking pedestal and thinking he’s perfect and she’s garbage. Now she knows they’re both garbage.

“Gert…” he starts, but she doesn’t give him a chance. She’s halfway through the window before he can say anything else, slamming it shut behind her, and Chase might be an idiot, but he’s smart enough not to follow her.

And then she sees Nico.

“What the fuck was that?” Nico barks, grabbing her arm as Gert tries to push past her.

“It’s none of your business, Nico.” Gert feels like she’s going to cry, and she really doesn’t want to do it in front of some girl she barely knows.

“Chase is one of my best friends, so yes, it is very much my business. You have _no_ idea what his father is like. The shit he deals with every day. His home life is hell and he is still the kindest person I know. You clearly can’t say the same.” Nico drops Gert’s arm like it’s burning her, and her look of disdain makes Gert want to crawl under a rock and never emerge. “I have no idea what he sees in you.”

She storms off before Gert can tell her that she’s right.

* * *

Chase doesn’t go to bed until well after everyone else is asleep, except for Gert, who is pretending. He doesn’t look at her at all the next day, and Gert feels like she’s dying, but there’s no time or space to pull him aside with the rest of their friends surrounding them twenty-four-seven. If he tells her to fuck off, she doesn’t really want an audience.

It’s after nine o’clock at night when Gert comes out of the bathroom and realizes that everyone is mysteriously missing except for Chase, who looks just as shocked to see her. “I thought you went for a walk with everyone else?”

“No…wait, they went for a walk?”

“Yeah. They said you were going with them, so I stayed here…” Chase trails off as they both reach the same conclusion. Clearly, the weird energy between them was more noticeable than they thought.

Gert ignores the hurt of Chase staying at the hostel to avoid her, because she can’t say it’s unfair. “I’m sorry,” she blurts out unceremoniously, and it’s not graceful, but it does loosen the knot in her chest a little. “I prejudged you, which goes against everything I stand for, and I didn’t even mean it. Nico was right, I don’t know what your life is like, but I do know you’re not an entitled idiot. You’re smart and funny and really nice and sometimes I’m…not that nice. I’m sorry, Chase.”

She caps off her rambling with a deep breath, and Chase is silent for a period of time that’s probably less than a minute but feels like forever. “What did Nico tell you?”

“Not much. But…enough.” Gert takes a step toward him, still maintaining a healthy distance because she’s not sure what she’ll do if she gets too close. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not really.” He sits on the edge of his mattress, slumping down like he’s suddenly exhausted. “Maybe someday.”

“Well, we’re only here for another week, so someday might have to be soon.”

Chase smiles, a little sadly. “Yeah, well. I was hoping we would stay friends after this. If you wanted.”

Gert’s heart skips a beat, which is sort of pathetic because he’s only asking to be friends. But still. “You don’t hate me?”

“Gert, of course not. Last night was pretty rough, but…” He runs a hand through his hair. “I like spending time with you. I don’t want us – all of us – to lose touch when this is over.”

“Yeah.” It’s the group he’ll miss, not her, specifically. But she’ll miss them too. She can’t imagine going back to Massachusetts and acting like her life hasn’t irrevocably changed somehow.

They talk for a few minutes about setting up a group chat for everyone before the door swings open, and Nico spots them immediately, letting out a dramatic sigh. “Great, that worked. Who wants a drink?”

* * *

The music is so loud that Gert can’t hear herself think, which is probably for the best, because her thoughts are screaming at her that this is a very bad idea.

Shots were a very bad idea. Asking Chase to dance was a very bad idea. Wearing this thin dress was a very bad idea, because she can feel the heat from his hands so intensely that he might as well be touching her bare skin. The club is dark and the lights are flashing and Gert is a little drunk in the way that should make her fuzzy, but instead she’s hyper aware, overwhelmed by Chase’s cologne and how solid he feels against her, his chest pressed to her back and his fingers digging into her hips.

It happens accidentally, because it’s Friday night and everyone is practically shoulder-to-shoulder, but the brave and reckless part of Gert leans into him, relaxes into the touch, and Chase doesn’t move away. She shuts her eyes, trying to commit this to memory, letting herself get caught up, just for a minute. Chase is naturally pretty tactile, and she gets goosebumps when his hand brushes against hers or his palm lands on her back to lead her somewhere. But this…they’ve never been close, and it feels so good. She’ll never get it again, so why not enjoy it?

Gert shivers as his hands ghost over her sides, and she leans back harder, her head against his shoulder. She can feel his warm breath on her skin and she’s not sure she could stand up of her own volition right now. He’s intoxicating.

She lets out a whimpering sound she doesn’t even recognize when his lips brush the curve of her neck, so gently she wonders if she imagined it, until she tilts her head up and sees nothing but heat in his eyes, and she knows she definitely didn’t. He’s so close and Gert has never wanted anything as much as she wants him to kiss her. She thinks she might actually lose her mind if he doesn’t.

“Holy shit!” Chase and Gert spring apart as much as the cramped space allows them, ready to launch into some kind of weak excuse, but Alex isn’t even looking at them. Gert gets it pretty much immediately as she follows his gaze to Nico and Karolina making out by the bar.

First of all, _okay, that’s happening_. Second of all, she was on the verge of doing that with Chase, and that would be a very bad idea. For about a thousand reasons that her brain is spinning too fast to list, but mostly because one time with Chase won’t be enough. And she can’t miss something that she never allows herself, right?

“Are you okay?” Chase says in her ear, because it’s too loud to talk any other way, and Gert wants to pick up where they left off but she can’t, because the moment is gone and her anxiety is back, baby.

“I need some air,” she shouts over the music, forcing her way through the crowd until she’s out the door and feels like she can breathe again.

* * *

_Damnit, Alex._

Chase wants to go after Gert, but she looked like she just wanted to get the hell away from him, so he doesn’t. A minute ago, he had her in his arms, as relaxed and unguarded as he’d ever seen her, and he was going to kiss her.

And then Alex interrupted the moment and flipped a switch. Gert had snapped back to reality and realized this was all a giant mistake. _He_ was a giant mistake.

Chase flags down the bartender and orders a beer. At least Nico and Karolina are having a good night.

* * *

Chase doesn’t say anything, and Gert is perfectly happy to pretend it didn’t happen.

As far as she’s concerned, it was ninety percent in her head anyway. The other ten percent was alcohol and pounding music and Chase being a guy who would probably have felt up any girl in that club if given the chance. Even if he is attracted to her, which he just isn’t, Gert can’t handle kissing him and having it mean nothing.

But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t think about his hands on her body and his lips on her neck every time she closes her eyes.

* * *

Gert’s having another panic attack.

He knows what it is, now, because he asked Molly about it after the first time and she gave him tips on how to help. So this time, he doesn’t ask, just goes straight to the kitchenette and fills up a glass of water for her. Gert takes it, not making eye contact with him, and downs it before handing the glass back to him. Chase sits on the farthest edge of the bed, giving her as much space as possible, and they spend the next ten minutes together in silence.

“Thanks,” she whispers, because it’s close to three a.m. and everyone else is asleep. Chase hasn’t been sleeping much, though. He can’t get Gert out of his brain and it doesn’t help that she’s so close every night. She’s so close and he can’t do anything about it.

“No problem,” he whispers back and somehow, he means it. Chase is naturally a caregiver, a protector, a big brother, but it’s different with her. He doesn’t know why. He just knows that he wants to take care of her, not because she needs it, but because he’s happier when she’s happy.

That’s a weird level of feeling for someone he met a week and a half ago, but sometimes Chase feels like he’s known Gert his whole life, and it’s crazy that he hasn’t.

“Do you need anything else?” he asks, and he waits for Gert to tell him to go back to bed, but she doesn’t. Her eyes are stormy, even in the dark, like she’s debating something, and the last thing Chase expects is for Gert to close the distance between them and curl into his chest.

His heart stops. She’s so warm and she smells like coconut from that color-protecting shampoo in the shower. He wraps his arms around her, pulling her tight to him, and she tucks her head under his chin. It feels strangely inevitable, like they were always supposed to meet and this was always supposed to happen.

His heart is beating erratically and Chase focuses on his breathing, trying to calm himself so he can calm her. She seemed so desperate to get away from him at the club that this doesn’t make sense, but this is just comfort between friends, so maybe it’s different. It doesn’t matter, anyway. Chase is pretty sure he’ll do anything for her.

Before he can stop himself, his hand goes to her soft hair, curling it gently between his fingers. Gert hums contentedly and he’s just… _shit_ , he really likes that sound. He has to live in the moment, pretend that nothing exists beyond this, because he can’t think about the fact that there are only a few days left of their trip and he might never see her again.

Gert yawns against his chest, and he reluctantly pulls back, unprepared for the way she’s looking at him. There’s so much trust, so much intimacy that it makes him melt. Maybe this is when Gert is the most herself, when she’s too tired to keep the walls up, when it’s three a.m. and she can pretend nothing ever happened tomorrow. “Can you stay?” she asks, her voice small, like she thinks there’s some chance he’ll say no.

Chase nods, too dumbstruck to speak, and Gert pulls him down with her on the narrow bed, adjusting the comforter over them and wrapping his arm around her waist as she buries her face in his chest again. All of this might be a dream, but god, it’s such a good one.

* * *

Gert wakes up alone and wonders if she hallucinated last night. And then Chase comes out of the bathroom, toweling off his wet hair, and when their eyes meet, he’s _blushing_. Gert’s pretty sure she is too, and she sends him a smile that she hopes conveys something like _thank you for being there for me and also thank you for getting out of bed before everyone else woke up because we would never hear the end of it._

She was right. Leaving him is going to hurt. But it was always going to hurt, whether she let him touch her or not.

Gert wishes she’d never met him. She wishes she didn’t know she was capable of feeling like this. She’s not sure anything else will ever measure up.

* * *

She looks beautiful like this.

Laughing at some story Nico and Karolina are telling her about getting on the wrong train, the light from the fire glinting off her purple hair, sipping from her cup of hot chocolate. She’s not aware of him and he’s grateful, because he just wants to watch her a little longer.

Okay, maybe that’s creepy, but this is their last night, and he wants to remember this. He’s not sure he’ll ever be able to forget.

Things have been different since the night he slept in Gert’s bed. They haven’t really talked about it, and he hasn’t kissed her like he wants to so badly, but she sends him shy looks and small smiles and lets her hand fall on his arm when she’s talking to him. He wants more, and he thinks she does too, but…tomorrow, they’re going to get on separate planes and fly to opposite sides of the country. And two weeks isn’t much of a foundation for a long-distance relationship – not that he wouldn’t try, if she asked.

She won’t. Because Gert is much more practical and not nearly as far gone as he is.

Nico and Karolina “go for a walk,” which he’s pretty sure is code for making out further down the beach, and Alex and Molly realize they’re out of marshmallows, so they volunteer to run down the street to the twenty-four-hour minimart and restock. Molly throws him a little wink as they leave. She’s crafty, that one.

He sits next to Gert on the blanket and she gives him an easy smile, hands tight around her cup because it’s a little chilly by the water. He only vaguely notices. His temperature always spikes around Gert.

“I wish we had more time,” Chase says quietly, honestly. He’s happy here, happier than he’s been in years. Maybe ever.

“I know.” She presses her lips together. “But we’ll stay in touch, right? All of us. And one day we can go on another trip together, or something.”

Chase looks at her, and this time, she doesn’t look away. “You’re amazing.”

He doesn’t know what possesses him to say it, but why not? He has nothing to lose.

Gert sucks in a breath, and he doesn’t know if it’s her heart that’s beating so loudly or his. “So are you.”

Chase couldn’t stop himself at this point if he was trying, which he isn’t. His hand comes up to cup her cheek and he leans in, slowly, so she can push him away if she doesn’t want this. But she meets him halfway, and _thank god_ for that, because kissing her is the best feeling in the world.

He never wants to stop, but his body betrays him with its stupid need for oxygen, so he pulls back, resting his forehead against hers. “Sorry. I just knew I would regret not doing that at least once.”

She opens her mouth and shuts it a few times, like she can’t decide what to say, before she gives up on talking altogether. Gert puts her hot chocolate on the ground so she can get her hands into his hair when she kisses him again, and fuck, he just _needs_ her. Chase doesn’t know what to do with that information.

He has no idea how long they stay like that, but her mouth doesn’t leave his until Nico and Karolina return and they jump apart. All four of them look disheveled and they mutually decide to keep their mouths shut, trying to pull themselves together before Molly comes back. Which doesn’t matter, because Gert’s little sister takes one look at them and snorts.

They stay at the beach until four a.m., Gert pressed against him almost the whole night, and Chase realizes he loves these people – these strangers who feel more like family than his actual family.

* * *

He’s not ready for this.

Chase thinks he was probably doomed the second he saw Gert. It was just a slow slide downhill from there – or maybe not that slow, because it’s only been two weeks and Chase feels like he’s going to die.

Their flights are three hours apart, but they agree to go to the airport together, because none of them know how to say goodbye. They chat idly in the car, solidifying their promises to keep in touch and suggesting places they could meet halfway for a weekend. Maybe Texas or New Orleans.

Gert puts her head on his shoulder in the backseat, mostly quiet. He doesn’t know what to say either.

Their flights are in separate terminals, and this isn’t how Chase wants to do this, with cars zooming past and someone fighting with an airline employee about how much it costs to check a bag. He helps the girls with their luggage and hugs Molly and Karolina, feeling his heart break into pieces when the younger girl tears up. And then Nico and Karolina are crying as they hug, and Chase just feels so overwhelmed, like nothing is right and he doesn’t have the power to fix it.

“I know,” Gert says, grabbing his hand, and the expression in her eyes matches exactly how he feels.

“Gert…” he starts, but she shakes her head.

“Don’t. This was amazing, okay? It was an amazing one-time thing and I’ll always remember it.” Gert bites her lip and tries to hold it together, but they’re both just barely succeeding. He hates the phrase _one-time thing_ , it doesn’t represent what this is, but he can’t promise her anything more.

So he just pulls her into his arms instead, holding her like it’s the last time he’ll ever get to. It might be.

“I have to go,” Gert says shakily, jerking away from him and grabbing her suitcase. “Bye.”

She barely looks at him as she disappears through the airport doors, Karolina and Molly in tow. Nico looks devastated and Chase wouldn’t wish the way he feels right now on anyone, but he’s also a little glad he’s not crumbling alone.

“Come on,” Alex says gently, putting a hand on each of their shoulders. “Let’s go.”

* * *

“I’ll be back later,” Karolina announces, fluffing up her hair and checking her lip gloss in the mirror. “I’ve got a FaceTime date with Nico.”

“You can do it in here, you know. I’ll blast my music if you guys plan to be inappropriate.” Gert raises an eyebrow and Karolina blushes.

“Shut up. I’m gonna do it in the courtyard. It’s a beautiful day.” She grabs her tablet and a pair of headphones and smiles at Gert before bouncing out of their room.

Gert considers texting Chase to ask if he wants to FaceTime and quickly dismisses the idea. He’s been pretty distant lately anyway. They keep in touch, but now that college has started, it’s not a huge shock that he’s too busy for her. He’s barely even been posting on social media, which is very unlike him.

Besides…talking to him is hard. She misses him so much more than she wants to, and she hates everything about it.

Karolina is gone for about twenty minutes when someone knocks on her door, and it’s obviously not her roommate, so Gert figures it’s probably the TA conducting a surprise spot-check for alcohol or something.

“Holy shit!” is not what she means to say, but it’s the appropriate reaction to the person standing directly in front of her. “Chase?”

He shoots Gert a megawatt smile and immediately scoops her into a bear hug. She’s clinging to him way too tightly, but she can’t help it. She’s not sure if he’s real. “God, I’m so happy to see you,” he huffs into her shoulder.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Gert says when they finally break apart, shoving him lightly. Chase laughs, and it’s the best sound she’s ever heard.

“I know I’ve been kind of missing in action lately, but I didn’t want to spoil the surprise.” Chase inhales, like he’s bracing himself for something. “I’m at MIT now. Only one hundred and a half miles away.”

Gert’s eyes must be comically wide, there’s _no way_ this is actually happening. “But I thought…your dad…”

“Yeah. He wasn’t a huge fan of the idea, but I told him I would put myself through school if I had to. He came around eventually.” Chase pins his lip between his teeth, radiating nerves and hope as he looks up at her through long eyelashes. “Are you happy?”

She can’t believe he has to ask. Gert is so happy she feels like she’s going to explode. “Yeah, of course, Chase.”

“Good. That’s good. Because, um…I didn’t come to Massachusetts for you. Well, not just for you. That would be…a little stalkerish.” Gert can’t even deal with the look that comes over his face, warm and eager and adoring. “But I’m here and I was hoping that you might consider…dating me. I-If you want to. Because I really like you, Gert.”

Okay, cool, she’s going to die here. There are worse ways to go.

Gert nods slowly, unable to do much but stare at him open-mouthed. “I definitely want to.”

She doesn’t think his face can light up any more, but it does, and he’s even more gorgeous than she remembers.

“Okay,” Chase says, still smiling, but he doesn’t move and Gert is not a patient person.

“Are you gonna like…hurry up and kiss me, or…” she asks breathlessly.

Chase laughs, leaning in and kissing her soundly as they both grin like idiots. For the first time, there’s no end looming over them. Just a beginning.


End file.
